Introduction
Interest in Latin American studies, especially its culture and contemporary
issues, continues to grow in the academic community. With that growth, serial
resources, especially online resources, are becoming increasingly important
to scholars working in the area. Seeking to provide students and scholars
with ready access to the expanding array of academic journals in Latin American
studies, librarians are increasingly directing users to electronic sources,
such as e-journals, foreign news sites and online arts, and cultural publications.
From popular magazines and commercial Web sites to more specialized scholarly
e-journals, the task of sorting through the online serial literature of interest
to Latin Americanists may at first seem daunting for one unaccustomed to these
resources. Some are not in English and many may not be indexed in the standard
library article and newspaper databases. This paper briefly outlines the topography
of Latin American studies online serial literature and then focuses on an
emerging class of free online peer-reviewed academic journals in Latin American
studies, centering on two publications that currently exemplify this movement
away from the traditional subscription model of scholarly communication.

Among the numerous Latin American academic journals currently
being published, few are dedicated to providing all current and past content
for no subscription charge; nevertheless, discussion continues in academia
about ways of reducing the cost of distributing scholarly information and
more freely promoting the growth and exchange of human knowledge.[1.]
Certainly low-cost, high-quality e-journals should be fostered and encouraged.
This article illuminates and celebrates two emerging free online journals
in the area of Latin American studies: DeRLAS: Delaware Review of Latin
American Studies, a full-text, scholarly, peer-reviewed e-journal, and
CiberLetras, Journal of Literary Criticism and Culture, an online
literary journal devoted to the study of Hispanic literature and culture.
With both English and Spanish language content, these e-journals are respected
in the Latin American studies academic community. Both have shown their dedication
to publishing free quality, peer-reviewed research online and have established
track records of continuous publication for five years. While neither is currently
listed in Ulrich's Periodical Directory or Serials Directory, both
are cataloged in OCLC and have ISSNs.

CiberLetras is a free online critical journal about
the literature of Spain and Latin America. It publishes articles, reviews,
and interviews in either Spanish or English. The site is based at and funded
largely by Lehman College, City University of New York. The journal originated
because of concern among some Latin Americanists about the lack of serious
academic journals devoted to Spanish language literature freely available
on the Internet.[22.] They were also interested in providing
journal literature to students who could not afford a subscription to a literary
journal. The two founders and coeditors of the e-journal are Cristina Arambel-Guiñazú
of Lehman College and Susana Haydu of Yale University. They assembled an advisory
committee of four scholars from Yale, La Universidad Nacional Autónoma
de México, and La Universidad de Buenos Aires and an editorial committee
of twenty-five scholars representing institutions throughout the United States
and Europe. The journal employs one staff member who handles the technical
maintenance of the Web site. The modest cost of the operating the journal
is absorbed by Lehman College.

CiberLetras accepts submissions in Spanish or English,
which are read by the two editors. Those to be considered for publication
are passed on to members of the editorial board for peer-review. Information
on submissions can easily be found either on the About page linked from all
the top banners and at the bottom of each issue page. The guidelines are clearly
delineated and printable.

The readership is primarily from the United States, Latin America,
Spain, and Canada. The editors are seeking ways to expand readership to Europe
and other parts of the world. Since its founding in 1999, the site has been
visited over 59,000 times, averaging between forty and eighty visitors per
day.[23.] Guiñazú foresees a bright future
for the journal because of generous support by her institution, the increasing
number of submissions, and an expanding readership.[24.]

General Design and Navigation
The front page of CiberLetras is an attractive yet simple design,
which easily loads and does not distract the reader with unnecessary graphics.
The whole Web page sits upon a shaded virtual sheet of paper, aligned to the
left of the screen, assuring consistent and pleasant viewing regardless of
browser size or resolution. The elegant arrangement of the banner with title
of the journal and four essential links (About, Home, Archives, and Links)
is eye-catching, attractive, and useful on subsequent pages for navigation
around the Web site (see Figure 2). The scrollable areas beneath the banner
are laid out in two columns: a narrow descriptive column on the left containing
the issue number with both a Spanish and English description of the journal's
mission, and a wider main column on the right containing the theme of the
current issue and a linked list of article titles.

Issues and ArchivesCiberLetras is semiannual, publishing midwinter and midsummer. The
first issue was August 1999, and the December 2003 issue is the tenth issue
thus far. Each issue of CiberLetras usually collects a number of
articles around a central theme. For example, the first issue of CiberLetras
was dedicated to Jorge Luis Borges, the second addressed possible consequences
of the twenty-first century upon Hispanic literature and culture, and the
third was dedicated the early twentieth century Argentine writer Roberto Arlt.
Contributions on various topics not related to the issue's theme are also
welcomed and included, such as essays, interviews, and reviews.

The linked articles are laid out as a full page for maximum
use of space and easy printing. Each author's name beneath the title is linked
with a "mail to" e-mail address. The footnotes within the text of
each article are linked to the corresponding footnotes at the bottom of the
article. The layout of the issue page is delineated in several sections: the
main thematic articles, followed by essays, notes, interviews, and reviews.

Archives of past issues are easily found by following the Archives
link found in the banner of all the pages. A simple listing of the eight volumes
to date, with the title of the theme for that volume, links the reader to
each past issue.

Searching and IndexingCiberLetras was approached by producers of the MLA Bibliography
(Modern Language Association) to have all their article indexes in that
database. A recent search of articles from CiberLetras in the MLA
Bibliography yielded 136 items. I was unable to find CiberLetras
articles in other indexes, however, such as The Handbook of Latin American
Studies (HLAS Online), INFO LATINOAMERICA, Ingenta,
or Arts and Humanities Search.[25., 26.,
27. and 28.] The journal is, on the other
hand, listed in a number of Web directories, such as the Yahoo Directory
of Literary Journals and at the LANIC directory mentioned above.[29.
and 30.] It has no internal search engine, so without a
citation, a visitor must browse the individual issues or rely on an external
search engine to comb the site. [31.] d

Site MaintenanceCiberLetras is well designed, attractive, and intuitively navigable.
All links appear to function and the pages load quickly. Current and past
articles, as well as the instructions for submissions, can easily be found.
The Web pages at present are up-to-date and well maintained.

Added Online ValueCiberLetras has a link to Links in the banner on every page. This
section is a work in progress, which currently only lists a few Web resources.
The most important is the link to the Jorge Luis Borges Collection in Buenos
Aires, Argentina. The editors plan to develop this section of the site in
the future to provide links to various Web sites and other online publications
related to Hispanic literature and culture.[32.]

ConclusionsDeRLAS and CiberLetras are outstanding examples of high-quality,
low-cost academic journal publishing in Latin American studies. Despite complaints
from the academic community about the high cost of journal publishing, small
groups of dedicated scholars have shown that respectable scholarly communication
can be nurtured and facilitated by devoting time and effort into a Web publication
project.

Are these grassroots, low-budget, academic journals just an
anomaly of academic publishing or the precursors of a growing trend toward
a more expanding, decentralized, and decommercialized academic serial literature?
Before such a trend can take full flight, scholars must acknowledge the comparable
worth of these journals to existing titles, and tenure decisions will have
to include these publishing venues. Librarians are already realizing the benefit
of including free Web journals in their online library catalogs. Furthermore,
some indexing and abstracting services are beginning to acknowledge that these
publications are an increasingly important element of scholarly communication
and therefore must be included.

References1. For examples of discussion on the high cost of academic
journals, see Gloria S. Werner's article, "SPARC-Alternatives to High-Cost
Journals," American Libraries, 31 (March 2000): 52, and Charles
Goldsmith's "Publish or Perish, but at What Cost to Academia? World's
Research Libraries Balk at High Price of Journal Subscriptions," The
Wall Street Journal, January 8, 2001.